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Monday, November 27, 2017

I am posting this late but I wanted to let any readers left on my blog that this blog is on an indefinite hiatus. I will occasionally post back here but not as often as I used to. The posts will be less about my daily personal style and be more varied. If you'd like to keep up with me, I update my Instagram and my Youtube often. Thank you so much for reading and for continuing to read here.<3

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Hey-lo, any readers still check up on this blog? I'd say probably not since I haven't done much except reviews when I know that most of my followers are here because of my outfit posts. I apologize, as I do, for having so few outfit posts. Well, posts in general. I have been well during my absence from here. How have you guys been? I'm still using my Youtube channel (though my upload schedule is inconsistent as hell) so if you have any video requests that I'm able to do, please let me know. I love getting appropriate video requests. I've thought about doing a mukbang video (mukbang videos are a style of video that originated in South Korea where someone films themselves eating and talking to the viewer) but I haven't decided what food to eat for it. I've also just been trying to not eat out as often. I think these photos show that I've gained a fair bit of weight since my last post and thought I like the curves my body now has, I'd like to have just slightly slimmer legs and arms.Anyways, since my last post, I have also quit working at Crossroads. I couldn't really talk about my experience working there while I was still employed there but now that I've quit, I will say that it was a negative experience albeit a really good learning experience. I'm still thankful that I was able to get a job here because all of the stress and anxiety that the job caused me, prepared me and helped me get my current job at Urban Outfitters. I'm not a full-time employee at UO, but I get quite a few shifts (two long ones each week normally), a lot more shifts and hours than I used to get at my old job. I also enjoy the environment here a lot more too. I used to feel so anxious and sick walking into my old job but as soon as I walk into Urban, I feel super excited and ready to work. I was recently given a new position as well. I'm the Beauty Specialist at my store which is really cool cause I essentially get to work in my own department. Basically I really love working at UO. Which is surprising considering the company's history but the store and the people I work with are incredible and so fucking inspiring to be around and to work with.

And props to my boyfriend for helping me take photos for this post and for any future posts. He's a real keeper. Here's to hoping that my self confidence continues on and makes it possible for me to make more outfit posts!

Monday, June 6, 2016

Product: MISSHA M Magic Cushion in shade No. 23 Natural BeigePrice: $9.27 (Amazon link) | $19.00 (Official US MISSHA link)Review: I've only been using this for a total of two days but I really really like this cushion compact so far. It brightens my skin, gives me a natural dewy finish, and provides buildable coverage if needed. I have it in the shade No. 23 which is just a hair too light for me but I tend to keep my base bright in comparison to the rest of my skin so it didn't really bother me. For reference, I am shade Punjab in the NARS Sheer Glow Foundation. Like the majority of Korean brands, there aren't many shade choices in the range. For this, there are three shades available: No. 21 Light Beige, No. 23 Natural Beige, and No. 27 Honey Beige. The darkest shade, Honey Beige, isn't darker so much as it is slightly warmer in tone compared to the two other shades. If you're darker than me, you won't be able to find a shade match. One thing I really dislike about Korean brands is how limited their shade ranges are in terms of skin tone. I understand that the majority of their consumers are quite light skinned, but it's obtuse to not include any darker shades.

Other than that, I really like this. Before this product, I didn't have any cushion compacts. I thought they were messy and I already have quite a few BB creams that I haven't even run out of but I decided to get this one because it's the same formula of the fan-favorite MISSHA BB Cream. I think having to apply it in taps with the puff definitely makes the skin look more natural and less caked on. There's also a luminous radiant finish to this formula which I love. I've been favoring more glowy finishes for my base so this was a happy surprise. The formula for this includes witch hazel which is a great ingredient because it won't irritate your skin and will instead soothe and calm the skin. The formula is supposed to be able to absorb sweat and sebum so that your makeup lasts longer but I tend to get a tiny bit oily in my T-zone so I still set that and my undereye with loose powder just in case. Turns out that was a smart move on my part. Because of the luminous finish, I do think that a touch of powder to set the T-zone and any parts of the face that are more likely to crease is a good idea if you have even a touch of oily skin. I recommend this product if you're thinking about getting into Korean makeup but aren't sure what to get. There are A LOT of different BB Creams, CC Creams, cushion compacts, jelly compacts, etc. on the market and more to come. This product is a tried and true formula that is quite popular within the KBeauty community and it's one that I'd recommend wholeheartedly. Plus, MISSHA doesn't test on animals which is always A+ in my books.Rating: 5/5

This is what the cushion compact looks like on my face after 6 hours of wear in natural light. I wore this to work and I'm still wearing it as I'm typing up this post. It's held up well and I've only had to powder once since I got home and that was just on my T-zone where, like I had said before, am oilier than on the rest of my face. I thought that it would look "cakey" around my nose and mouth but it actually looked quite nice. Even with powder, the finish still looked like skin.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

So a couple of weeks ago, Court and I were lucky enough to get a rare chance to get away from Sacramento and from work. Now if you don't follow my YouTube/Vlog then you probably don't know that the past few months for us have been stressful and tiring. Court works two jobs and often has to get up for a 4:30AM shift and then come home for a few hours before going off for another shift at his other job. As you guys know, I have two jobs as well. One I really look forward to and the other frustrates me to no end. It was safe to say that Court and I could not wait to get away from the stresses of retail and customer service work. I mean let's be real, about 99.9% of shoppers/consumers are total assholes. Anyways. I took some photos while we were in Southern California. I didn't take a lot because well, I was busy relaxing and documenting it didn't really seem right. I guess because I'm on my phone a lot here, it felt weird to take it out while I was supposed to be relaxing.

We stayed with Court's family in San Diego which is such a treat. I've only been there once before and like last time, they made me feel right at home. Court's family is so great and I absolutely adore them. I know Court was happy to see them and it was good to see Court look and feel more relaxed. There was nothing but good feelings our whole trip and I think a huge part of that is credited to Court's family. They're just such good and funny and wonderful people.

On the drive down to San Diego, we stopped at a little water conservatory place. We stopped here last time and it was crazy windy then. It was a little windy here too but it was like a pleasant windy, you know? Court and I like stopping here because the bathrooms are clean, we learn about conserving water, and we always enjoy the sight of the lake next door.

This is the only OOTD I have to show for my trip and of course it was my travelling look. Everything but the shoes were thrifted.

This is Court's family and I near the end of a beautiful hike we did. We were at Torrey Pines which is a cool and wonderful seaside hike. Being anemic, I wasn't able to hike at the same pace as everyone else and almost fainted at one point. But Court's family is seriously incredible and the hike was still beautiful despite that. The boat I photographed was the only boat in the whole area and we all had a laugh about the boat name when I zoomed in on it.

This was the only picture I got at Disney. Again, I was honestly too busy having fun to even remember that I had a DSLR AND an iPhone. No photos were taken and not much video was recorded but I had so much fun that day. We went on a Sunday and we met up with my dear friend, Linh, and her boyfriend Joel. They moved down to San Diego after they both graduated. I have missed Linh and was so happy to spend a day with her and Joel. The above was taken at the Indian Jones ride where Court and I met a cute hot Irish boy named John who was there for what we assumed was the Disney Program. He was funny. And cute. I wanted to be like "Yo, if you need some friends, ya got some right here boyo" but I thought that was weird and plus he's working and probably didn't want to be badgered by a couple of kooks.

We ended the trip by meeting up with my Uncle RJ and his partner Cindy. They took us out to lunch at a cool vegan restaurant on Melrose called Crossroads. I found out when I got back that this is one of Ellen Degeneres' favorite restaurants. My Uncle and Cindy are vegan and Court's vegetarian so this place was a perfect pick. The food was so good and all of it was vegan. You see that picture up there? Did you think that was fried chicken and waffles? Cause I mean it is. It's just vegan. Even the butter and syrup were vegan and it was SO good. The vegan chicken was perfectly crispy even slathered in hot sauce syrup and the waffle tasted to good with the vegan butter. I seriously loved this place. It wasn't too expensive either which was good. The area itself is more of an upper class place (I mean it's Melrose sooo..) surrounded by stores like Joie, Alexander McQueen, Alice+Olivia, and multiple extravagant cafes. Someday I will come back to Crossroads and eat some more vegan fried chicken and waffle.

That was a perfect end to our trip. We made it home and ended up sleeping for days. We spent most of our weekend sleeping, waking up early, and stuffing as much as we could into our short stay.

Monday, May 2, 2016

In recent months, I've introduced face masks into my skincare routine. It's not something that I do every single day, but it's something that I do once a week to once every other week. I use face masks, nose masks, eye masks, and am looking into purchasing more peel off masks (they're my favorites!). I started buying face masks because I got a discount buying them at Urban and I ended up splurging on a small supply that lasted me a few weeks. I recently just received a packaged of the whole Tonymoly I'm Real Skin Care Facial Masks which includes 11 packs (11 different sheet masks!) that do a combination of brightening, firming, moisturizing, and revitalizing the skin. I really love these masks. They're my favorite ones that I've tried. I no longer have them, but I've tried the Etude House I Need You masks which work similarly to the Tonymoly ones but they cost a bit more (at least the package I linked to because you get 20 sheets instead of 11).

I've also incorporated a peel-off mask into my bi-weekly routine. I recently reviewed it here. The Face Shop's Jeju Volcanic Lava Clay Nose Mask is a great peel off nose mask because it's surprisingly gentle and really gets the sebum out of your skin. I will say to not use it as often as say everyday since that can actually do more harm than good for your skin. If you do have more sensitive skin I would definitely suggest looking into a peel-off product that coaxes the sebum out over a period of time as opposed to being pulled out. In this case, I would recommend Holika Holika's Pig Nose Clear Black Head Mask. It's a three step system that helps to slowly coax the sebum out before painlessly pulling it out. It's great for sensitive skin and it'll really get all that shit out of your pores. The last step also helps to minimize pores so aside from getting clean pores, you're also getting something that will help prevent your pores from getting too much sebum in it again. While we're on the subject of nose masks, I also use the Face Shops Nose Strips in the Charcoal version and the Aloe version. I've used them on my boyfriend before who has what I would call sensitive dry skin and this hasn't irritated the nose area where it's applied. I really really love nose strips like this because I love seeing all the gunk get out of my pores. The Charcoal one is really great for purifying your pores while the aloe one is good for pulling the sebum out gently.

Now, back to the Tonymoly masks here. Each one is made with a particular ingredient and that ingredient helps to promote brighter skin, clearer skin, firmer skin, etc. I regularly use the Lemon, Rice, and Tomato masks and regularly buy them from UO. For me, it's important for my skin to be bright and radiant with minimal acne. Both the Lemon and Tomato encourage bright and radiant skin while the Rice one encourages clear skin. It works for me well enough and I believe that it can work with sensitive skin as well. Also, I should note that I have oily combination skin with some dryness during the winter months. I find that that combination of masks used every other Sunday has helped lighten acne scars and my undereye area. My acne has also been quite minimal where I only get maybe one or two spots as opposed to before when my skin would break out during every time of the month. That is not the case now.

I also use the Its Skin Butterfly Eyes Mask (although I used my last one a few days before writing up this post so I have no pictures of it) to help brighten and firm up my undereye area. I really like this mask cause it's a gel-like mask that is soaked in essence that after you finish with your mask, you can gently massage around your whole eye area. I've heard some people say that the mask seems to only work for one type of face shape/eye shape. If you have wider set eyes and/or wider nose bridge, this mask might not sit properly on the face and might be a bit difficult. If that's the case, I would just use the essence from this product and just gently massage it into your eye area. I really do find that this product does help with brightening the undereye area but it is definitely something that you need to use over time in order to see a difference. It's not an immediate change, it's a gradual one. I find that these should work for all skin types. Majority of the items here are made with natural products and chemicals. I will note that if you're on the dryer side, make sure to use a moisturizer after massaging any sheet mask essence into your skin. I also suggest using this after a warm bath or shower. That way it seeps into your skin more easily and you can go to sleep with the essence really soaking into your skin during the night while you sleep which is the best time because at night when you're sleeping is usually when your skin repairs itself from the day's work. So, I hope that you guys enjoyed this post. If you have any questions regarding any of the products in this post, please feel free to comment below and I'll do my best to answer your question.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Product: NYX Illuminator for Face and Body in "Ritualistic"Price: $9.00 (Ulta) | $11.45 (Amazon)Review: So I'm back with another review. I didn't really see a whole lot of reviews for this particular NYX product so I decided to add this to try and fill that void. I mean, since highlighting and strobing have become super popular in the past year, I thought this would be a good drugstore alternative to the more expensive higher end brands. I thought I could save a lot by going for this one. I love NYX products and have never really had any issues with them. Of course, I've only used their lip and eye products, I haven't really used any of their face makeup. To start things off, out of the five shades offered I got the shade "Ritualistic" which is a champagne highlight. I initially swatched it and found it to be smooth and almost creamy. It didn't feel cheap, overly powdery, or chunky with cheap glitter particles. It felt nice and it swatched nicely. I seriously thought that this could have been a drugstore dupe for the Becca Cosmetics Shimmering Skin Perfector in "Moonstone". Having had and used this product for three days and eventually returning it on the third day, I realize now that I'm just gonna pay the $38 for the Becca highlighter because at least with that, I know that it'll stay on all day and I can adjust the highlight to be subtle and luminescent to strobe queen bright.

Basically, I did not like this product AT ALL. It felt so nice but it wears and applies terribly. You can't get a strobe-strength highlight with this product let alone a subtle natural glow. It applies patchily and as it wears throughout the day (or night), it emphasizes your pores and/or fine lines all while fading. I even set it with the Smashbox Priming Water and it still faded. It was so disappointing when it felt so nice and swatched so nicely. It just didn't last and it didn't even get me to that "lit from within" look that I've been doing recently. If you thought about getting this, definitely don't. Save your money and just pay the extra $28 for the Becca Cosmetics highlighters. The one good thing about this product is how big the mirror is. Other than that, there aren't any redeeming qualities. I am disappointed because up until now, NYX has been a total hit for me. Unfortunately, unlike my recent reviews, I don't have a lot to say about this product other than what I've already said about it being a waste of money. Rating: 1.5/5

For some reason, this photo made the product look quite white in the pan and in the swatch. I'm not sure why my camera did that, but the actual product is quite goldy.

Left: No product on my brow bones, cupid's boy, and cheekbones

Right: Product applied to my left brow bone and to the top of my left cheekbone

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Product: The Face Shop Jeju Volcanic Lava Clay Nose MaskPrice: $8.00 (UO price) | $8.29 (Amazon price)Link: Purchase from UO | Purchase from AmazonReview: Hello! So I recently purchased this from work the other day since I was curious about it and wanted to try a new mask. I was surprised when I first opened the package. Instead of it being creamy or liquidy, it was rather tacky. It's a pale pink almost white color and like I said, it has a tacky texture. Now, the brand is The Face Shop, a Korean brand that I rather like. I've tried a handful of their skincare products and have had good experiences so I went into trying this with very high expectations. When you use this, make sure your face is is clean so I suggest using this after you've washed your face with your cleanser. It says to apply to nose area in a thin layer and let dry for 10-15 minutes. Now I have oily combination skin and I found that this dried my skin out just a little so if you have dry skin, I would suggest using a very creamy and thick moisturizer and then using a facial mist after. For me, I used this on my nose and on my chin. I applied it with my fingers and I found that it was a little difficult to spread out an even layer over my skin but it didn't really bother me that much since I was still able to get out a nice layer. It's a peel off mask so after 10-15 minutes, you just kind of peel it off your skin which feels really cool and when you look at all the crap that comes up with the mask, it's still very cool. I did have difficulty pulling the mask off but I think that was my fault. I didn't have enough product to really lift up so with my boyfriend, I used a thicker layer on the edges and we were able to lift it off in one piece. The product doesn't have any real scent that I think would be an issue to anybody. It's kind of a calming floral scent but nothing too overwhelming. I do dislike that the product is small but I mean, it's only supposed to be used on your nose not your whole face and you're only supposed to use it once a week or so. But still. For $8, I'd like a bit more product.In terms of actual usefulness, I'd say this product works very well. Also, I noticed that the texture of the skin on my nose and chin felt softer than they had before and that there was less spotting on my skin. A spot I had on my chin looked less red and was smaller after I had used the mask as well. After I took the mask off, I used Etude House's Wonder Pore Freshner for my toner, I then used an acne spot cream, and then Tonymoly's Panda's Dream White Sleeping Pack for my moisturizer. I finished everything off with a quick spray of the Evian facial mist. The next morning, my skin felt softer and brighter. I also noticed that the skin on my nose and chin felt rather smooth. I would definitely recommend this mask to anybody looking to get into nose masks. It's fairly affordable, you get a good amount to last you at least three months, and it seems to work for sensitive skins (both my boyfriend and I have sensitive skin). If you try out this mask, please let me know how this works out for you and if there are any other nose or full face masks that you could recommend for me. Pictured below is the item in question as well as a photo of how I've been using this.Rating: 4/5